We were right, for when we had staggered forward a little further, suddenly Tommy ran ahead of us and vanished.  Then we heard him barking but where we could not see, since the tunnel appeared to take a turn and continue, but this time on a downward course, while the sound of the barks came from our right.  We searched with the lanterns which were now beginning to die and found a little hole almost filled with fallen pieces of rock.  We scooped these away with our hands, making an aperture large enough to creep through.  A few more yards and we saw light, the blessed light of the moon, and in it stood Tommy barking hoarsely.  Next we heard the sound of the sea.  We struggled on desperately and presently pushed our way through bushes and vegetation on to a steep declivity.  Down this we rolled and scrambled, to find ourselves at last lying upon a sandy beach, whilst above us the full moon shone in the heavens.

Here, with a prayer of thankfulness, we flung ourselves down and slept.

If it had not been for Tommy and we had gone further along the tunnel, which I have little doubt stretched on beneath the sea, where, I wonder, should we have slept that night?

When we woke the sun was shining high in the heavens.  Evidently there had been rain towards the dawn, though as we were lying beneath the shelter of some broad-leaved tree, from it we had suffered little inconvenience.  Oh! how beautiful, after our sojourn in those unholy caves, were the sun and the sea and the sweet air and the raindrops hanging on the leaves.

We did not wake of ourselves; indeed if we had been left alone I am sure that we should have slept the clock round, for we were terribly exhausted.  What woke us was the chatter of a crowd of Orofenans who were gathered at a distance from the tree and engaged in staring at us in a frightened way, also the barks of Tommy who objected to their intrusion.  Among the people I recognised our old friend the chief Marama by his feather cloak, and sitting up, beckoned to him to approach.  After a good deal of hesitation he came, walking delicately like Agag, and stopping from time to time to study us, as though he were not sure that we were real.

“What frightens you, Marama?” I asked him.

“You frighten us, O Friend-from-the-Sea.  Whence did you and the Healer and the Bellower come and why do your faces look like those of ghosts and why is the little black beast so large-eyed and so thin?  Over the lake we know you did not come, for we have watched day and night; moreover there is no canoe upon the shore.  Also it would not have been possible.”

“Why not?” I asked idly.

“Come and see,” he answered.

Rising stiffly we emerged from beneath the tree and perceived that we were at the foot of the cliff against which the remains of the yacht had been borne by the great tempest.  Indeed there it was within a couple of hundred yards of us.

Following Marama we climbed the sloping path which ran up the cliff and ascended a knoll whence we could see the lake and the cone of the volcano in its centre.  At least we used to be able to see this cone, but now, at any rate with the naked eye, we could make out nothing, except a small brown spot in the midst of the waters of the lake.